Luis Suarez has scored 31 times for Liverpool since his arrival from Ajax in late January 2011. Here's his 10 best so far.
It takes a special display for a player to be named the man of the match in a game that sees another player score 3 goals. For it to happen twice in a couple of months (while Dirk Kuyt scored 3 against United in March, it was Luis who took home the bubbly) shows just how incredible Suarez’s performances were in his first half season at Anfield.
He tore Fulham to shreds here and all that was lacking was a goal. It came late on as a brilliant Jonjo Shelvey through ball found Liverpool’s number 7.
What sets Suarez apart from other strikers is his balance and close control- and he displayed both attributes fully in this goal. Other players would have taken an extra touch after rounding the keeper, or simply planted their foot on the ground to regain balance. Suarez did neither, and executed the finish all in the same movement.
Something about Suarez that leaves fans bewildered is his ability to make something out of absolutely nothing.
There’s nothing on when Suarez plays a one two with Dirk Kuyt. The Uruguayan is still on the touchline as he receives the ball. Running in a straight line, he skips past the Sunderland defender and enters the area when he’s closed down by another Sunderland player.
Parallel with the bye line, in an apparent cul de sac, Suarez rips a scorcher of a shot which flies past the shell shocked Mignolet. It’s an early warning to English Football that a man to make the impossible possible has arrived. It’s a confirmation to Liverpool fans, bewitched by the Uruguayan’s performance in the previous game against Man United, that they had something special on their hands.
Another facet of Suarez’s play is his unpredictability. Instead of passing the ball as you expect, he’ll create space for himself by twisting the defender inside and out.
It’s highly debatable whether he knows what he’s going to do half the time. This unpredictability makes playing with him very difficult for his strike partner but makes playing against him even harder for defenders.
The goal against Wolves is a case in point. Running into a through ball from Jose Enrique, Suarez quickly finds himself in the area. Andy Carroll frees himself by making a run but Suarez elects to move the ball to his right foot and then back to his left very quickly, confusing 2 defenders, before firing a shot with his weaker foot inside the near post from the tightest of angles.
I’ve watched football for 26 years. During that time, I’ve seen some fantastic players. None, however, have had the constant ability to make the ball ricochet in their favor.
The amount of times Suarez gets the ball, hits the defender with it before taking the rebound in his stride is unbelievable. The first few times it happened you chalked it off to good luck. But as it still occurs every game close to 2 years after his Liverpool debut, it’s clear there’s something more to it.
Take this goal for example. It starts off with a ricochet which looks like bad defending if you don’t know it happens with Suarez every game. Luis then runs with the ball and reaches the edge of the area where fires in drilled shot from a very hard angle.
Despite scoring a few for Ajax and hitting the bar with one on his full Anfield debut, Suarez hadn’t scored a free kick for Liverpool before his beauty against City in August.
This one was even better, a belting, curling shot into the top corner of the goal at Kop end for Liverpool’s first free kick goal (that went OVER a wall) since Fabio Aurelio’s special at Old Trafford in the 4-1 win in 2009.
While there are some fantastic dribblers in the English league, Luis Suarez is perhaps the only one who constantly takes players out of the game without touching the ball.
The Uruguayan is a master of letting the ball do the work for him. He often receives a pass, puts his body between the defender and the ball then feints to control it and lets it run past him; taking out his marker in the process.
This is what he does for this goal as he receives the ball in the center circle and eliminates his marker. He’s still a long way away from goal, but Suarez runs at the opposing center back and takes the ball to the left side of the area where he slots home from a tight angle.
He’s often come close to scoring brilliant individual goals like this (and almost scores an even better one a few of weeks later vs Stoke), but the Hearts one is the first time he’s pulled it off.
Not a single goal in the entire list encapsulates Luis Suarez more than this one. His ability to score impossible goals is as renowned as his habit of missing easy chances. His skill and insane work rate have made him the biggest nightmare for opposing defenders in the league. He is unquestionably the league’s most hated player, but also perhaps its most gifted.
This goal has everything.
It starts off with the striker missing a simple 1-1 with the keeper by about 5 yards to howls of laughter. While the Norwich crowd boos him unmercifully, Suarez trots back. By the time the resultant goal kick is taken, he is running to close down the defender who doesn’t spot him.
Suarez nips in to dispossess the Norwich player, turns and nutmegs him in one movement and then guides an exquisite finish from the edge of the area with the outside of the boot in to the far bottom corner- when the easier option would have been to take a few more touches.
28 seconds. 4 touches. 1 glaring miss, 1 interception, 1 nutmeg, shot.
1 goal.
3) vs. Stoke, 1st goal, League Cup 2011/12
If Jonjo Shelvey is the king… The king of the Golf (just watch Being Liverpool- Oh Brendan…); then Luis Suarez is the king of the nutmeg.
There isn’t a defender that Suarez hasn’t nutmegged or at least attempted to. It’s not a exaggeration to say it happens every game and it’s a perfect example of how dangerous Suarez is in tight spaces- and how cheeky and impudent a player he is.
In this goal, again nothing is on as the number 7 picks the ball. He’s surrounded by defenders but Henderson’s run creates space for him. Suarez nutmegs Rory Delap’s apprentice and then curls a fantastic shot into the far right corner to give Liverpool an equalizer.
He’d then grab a late winner but it’s this goal that was on all the highlight reels.
There are very few players currently playing professional football that could have scored this goal. Everything about it is sheer perfection.
It starts off with Luis Suarez, 70 yards away from the ball making a clever run between the Newcastle defenders. As the ball is pumped into him by Jose Enrique, Suarez could easily have been distracted by Krul or Coloccini but he keeps his eye on the ball throughout its trajectory.
He then controls it with the upper part of his chest and shoulder, killing it dead. He strains his entire body in order to let the ball drop without any interference from his chest. And while 99% of world footballers would have shot it first time, Suarez rounds the keeper and slots into an empty net.
3 exquisite touches combined with bravery, movement, industry and sheer flair.
Denis Bergkamp, Matt Le Tissier, Diego Maradona?
No, Luis Suarez.
This goal is a guilty pleasure of mine. There’s nothing else in football I love more than seeing someone chipping the keeper from distance.
For a player to score a chip requires several attributes. The vision to spot the keeper off his line, the cheekiness to decide to try to chip him, the acceptance that you’ll look like a fool if it doesn’t come off and the technique to actually pull it off. All this is done in a couple of seconds.
Few players actually have all these traits. The ones that do are some of the best players in football (Seedorf, Beckham, Alonso, erm, Figueroa…).
Suarez displayed all these traits to score this strike. It was made even better by the fact that it was his hatrick goal, coming 1 week before the cup final. Oh, and by this celebration.
I was there for the goal against Hearts and Stoke!
Posted by: Darwish Noureldin | 11/05/2012 at 11:22 PM
What? The goal against Newcastle is not No. 1? That goal can qualify as the goal of the season and it's not No. 1? Impossible!!!
Posted by: Hogzilla | 11/22/2012 at 08:50 PM